Identifying and Advocating Best Practices in the Criminal Justice System. A Texas-Centric Examination of Current Conditions, Reform Initiatives, and Emerging Issues with a Special Emphasis on Capital Punishment.

Tuesday, 05 February 2013

Bill Addresses Changing Science in Criminal Appeals

Advocates are backing a renewed push to streamline the appeals
process for those who were convicted based on science that has since
been discredited.

Senate Bill 344, filed Monday by state Sen. John Whitmire,
would establish a statute expressly allowing Texas courts to overturn
convictions in cases where the forensic science that originally led to
the verdict has changed. Though the bill has failed twice before,
Whitmire said that several recent Court of Criminal Appeals decisions
may make it more likely to pass, and that prosecutors who have opposed
it in the past should come around. “Why wouldn't we want to find out
there's flawed evidence based on new science?" he said.

Currently,
people convicted of a crime in Texas can submit a writ of habeas corpus
to the Court of Criminal Appeals, in which they ask for a new trial
based on evidence that was not available when they were originally
convicted. If the science used to convict them has changed, there is no
special guideline allowing the court to grant them a new trial, and the
judges often disagree about whether to do so.

Supporters of the
bill point to the history of DNA testing as an example for why the
change is needed. In 1998, the Court of Criminal Appeals denied a new
trial to Roy Criner,
then serving 99 years for a rape and murder, even though new DNA
evidence suggested that Criner was innocent. Then-Gov. George W. Bush
pardoned Criner in 2000, and in 2001, the Legislature created Chapter 64 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which streamlined the process for new testing of DNA.

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The StandDown Texas Project

The StandDown Texas Project was organized in 2000 to advocate a moratorium on executions and a state-sponsored review of Texas' application of the death penalty.
To stand down is to go off duty temporarily, especially to review safety procedures.

Steve Hall

Project Director Steve Hall was chief of staff to the Attorney General of Texas from 1983-1991; he was an administrator of the Texas Resource Center from 1993-1995. He has worked for the U.S. Congress and several Texas legislators. Hall is a former journalist.